Colossians 3: The Vision for the Christian Life

For most of us, our capacity to sing is fit for lonely places and showers. Our voices sound particularly sweet when we sing quietly and we are the only ones hearing it. However, If somehow magically gave one of us the natural talent of a world class singer, it wouldn’t necessarily be the ticket to stardom. See, we may have the talent by nature, yet our habits of practicing solely in the shower and mistreating our voices would remain. This gives us insight into the Paul sees the Christian life. I hope you are getting a sense of the vision that Paul has regarding the Christian life This chapter gives possibly the clearest picture.

Each person has been created with beauty, nobility, power and glory inherent in their nature. Yet, all men and women are born into a kingdom that was broken in the fall and ruled by rulers and principalities of darkness. This Kingdom has its own values and practices. The DNA of this kingdom is handed down from Adam and Eve and the practices are learned throughout life.

Jesus’ resurrection is the decisive blow of the Kingdom of light versus the kingdom of darkness. Now, the Holy Spirit unites Christians to the power, victory and new life of the resurrection. We are given a new nature that is not bound to sin but longs for righteousness. Like the one with the natural ability to sing, we now have the(super) natural ability live righteously.
This chapter shows us how we do it. We starve the old man (flesh, old life, etc) and we feed the new man. We break our practices that belonged to our earthly nature and we put on practices that belong to our new nature. Like the singer who really could sing with the kind of practice, we too can truly live if we take the opportunity to learn to live the new life.

What stood out as you read Colossians 3? It is a good habit to pick out one imperative to consider today and to apply in your life. Remember though. Apply it NOT to earn your approval but as ones who have been raised with Christ and as ones who ARE God’s chosen, dearly loved people.